Xbox 360 Laptop mk2

Here's a main shot of the unit with the screen off. Those are Ben's 2nd and 5th favorite screwdrivers in the shot. Most of the unit is gloss black, but there's some green trim around the insides of both halves.

Here's a blurry thing sliding around the screen. Very action packed. We used the same model LCD as the first model, a 17-inch widescreen Westinghouse, running at 1280x768.

Side and top view. For this model we used a small USB keyboard ordered online. It was quite thin with the case removed and fairly easy to hack. Again it's much easier to use a stock keyboard than rout and build your own keys. Granted, making your own keys ups the awesome factor by about 500%, but it also sucks up a lot of a person's life.

The flashbulb lights up the edges of the plastic revealing all the front vent holes. This time we put all 3 USB ports in one spot on the right side of the unit. Perhaps we chould have sprayed the controller black while we were at it. Or just pick up an "Elite" controller next month when they come out. Wait, spray paint is about $47 cheaper, nevermind.

Low front view of the keyboard and front panel. This unit is slightly thicker than the first Xbox 360 laptop by about 1/8th of an inch.

Much like most modern consoles, you can stand the Xbox 360 Laptop mk2 on end and it will continue to hold in winds up to 15mph. Just don't leave any small pets laying nearby it if you're not sure.

The Xbox 360 Laptop mk2 standing on end, with bottom visible. Like the first model, it has the probably-more-stylish-than-useful "star" openings under the GPU / CPU. Unlike the first model, however, this uses screws to secure the heat sink mounts to the aluminum base, much like they are in the original Xbox 360 console.

Here's the DVD drive opening, the same color green as the rest of the trim. It was done with Krylon "paint for plastic" from the good old hardware store. Sort of harder to see is the IR sensor, just to the right of the eject button.

End view of the unit. Notice how the green trim from both halves converge in the center. 2 of the USB ports were from the original Xbox 360, the 3rd was a standalone USB we had laying around that happened to be white inside.

View with the lid closed. It was a lot easier to get everything to fit together this time since this unit is only about 20% aluminum (versus the original which was 80% alumimun) and no welding was used. Still fairly difficult to build, but since we steered away from troubling techniques that caused all manner of emotional distriss last time, we were able to get through this one without pulling out our remaining three hairs. We'll save those for my next project.